WA wine producers celebrate stellar vintage

The West Australian

Monday, 13 July 2009 9:18PM

WA wine producers are celebrating a stellar 2009 vintage - hailed as among the State's finest - but are also battening down the hatches as the economic storm breaks over wineries and vineyards from the Perth Hills to the Porongurups.

But while tales of pain and pessimism abound, WA's best known wine brands say wine drinkers could be the winners from tough economic times, with pressure on to make top-notch drops.

Cape Mentelle senior winemaker Rob Mann said he was scaling back production by 15 per cent and focusing on quality to beat the tide of Kiwi sauvignon blanc, despite an easing in domestic sales.

Mr Mann said he has noticed a shift towards lower prices but insisted Margaret River semillon and sauvignon blanc blends were, at the $25 mark, still better value than inexpensive New Zealand wines. "We're looking at significant pressure from New Zealand, which is not only producing direct competition but lowering the value of the category (semillon and sauvignon blanc)," he said. "We need to be better than everybody and perhaps not produce the same quantity as we used to but to make less and make it better and compete on qualitative terms"

The 2009 Cape Mentelle sauvignon blanc semillon would be an excellent strong wines with vibrant acidity and good fruit flavours, he said.

Mr Mann said he was also taking heart from a shift towards other whites.

He said people were coming back to chardonnay but this season would see a younger style.

"It will be more fruit driven, finer, a more restrained, less oaky," he said.

WA Wine Industry Association vice president Kerry Smart said there was considerable frustration from wine producers about discounted wine from New Zealand, which was being sold for less than $10 a bottle by some big retailers. "I counted 22 New Zealand sauvignon blancs at Vintage Cellars," he said. "It's competing head to head in that sweet little niche we'd carved for ourselves."

Leeuwin Estate chairman Denis Horgan has been in the game since 1969 and is taking a long-term view.

"If you look at WA we're a special breed over here with the quality of the wines that we're producing," Mr Horgan said, adding that this year's vintage was one of the best Margaret River had produced.

WA made just 5 per cent of Australia's wine, it accounted for 20 per cent of its premium wine. New Zealand sauvignon blanc was flooding in but it was a very different style to what Margaret River offered, he said.

Mr Horgan said demand for premium and ultra-premium wine had fallen so producers had to be smart about finding new markets and watch their costs.